Woodingdean shopkeeper asks for extra parking for customers

A shopkeeper from Woodingdean asked for parking bays in Warren Road to be realigned so that more customers could park.

Gilles Guichard, who runs Johny’s Wares, in Warren Road, also asked for the maximum stay to be reduced from four hours to two hours.

Mr Guichard said that he opened his hardware and homeware store about a year ago. Many of the items on sale there are too bulky to be carried on foot or by bike.

He said: “I quickly realised that parking was an issue for members of the public in Woodingdean.

“If we put the parking at a 45 degree angle we could increase the parking for almost no budget.”

In a survey of residents, 96 per cent were in favour, he said today (Tuesday 8 October).

He said that this would return the layout to the way that it was five or six years ago.

People were leaving their cars for four hours while they took the bus into Brighton, Mr Guichard said, presenting a petition to Brighton and Hove City Council at Hove Town Hall.

Councillor Pete West, chairman of the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, said: Officers and myself visited the site a few weeks ago to investigate the matter first hand.”

He said that there were concerns about changing existing parallel bays into diagonal bays, adding: “It would require changing the layout of the pavement which would become narrower.

“This matter was looked at before when the current parallel bays were created because the diagonal bays were dangerous with people reversing into the traffic.”

He said that the recently built nearby library and health centre would add to the pressure on local parking spaces.

Councillor Dee Simson said: “I would appreciate more consideration being given to making it two-hour parking”

She added: “It is the only place in Woodingdean with four-hour bays. Everywhere else it’s two hours.”

And she said that she had no recollection of any consultation before the previous changes were made.

Councillor West said: “It was a budget decision within the council that led us to this position.”